n's companion, destroyed it, whereupon little Ludwig dashed his
violin to shatters.

At the early age of thirteen, Beethoven published at Mannheim, in his
own name, Variations on a March, Sonatas, and Songs. But at this time
his genius displayed itself more decidedly in musical improvisations.
His extempore fantasias are mentioned by Gerber, in his Lexicon, as
having excited the admiration of the most accomplished musicians of the
time.

The fame of his youthful genius attracted the attention of the Elector
of Cologne, who sent him at his own expense to Vienna, in character of
his Court organist, to study under the celebrated Haydyn, in order to
perfect himself in the art of composition.

Vienna was at this time (1792), the central point of every thing great
and sublime, that music had till then achieved on the soil of Germany.

Mozart, the source of all light in the region of harmony, whose
acquaintance Beethoven had made on his first visit to Vienna in 1786,
who when he heard Beethoven extemporize upon a theme that was given him,
exclaimed to those present, "This youth will some day make a noise in
the world"--Mozart, though he had been a year in his grave, yet lived
freshly in the memory of all who had a heart susceptible of his divine
revelations, as well as in Beethoven's. Gluck's spirit still hovered
around the inhabitants of the old city--F. Haydyn and many other
distinguished men in every art, and in every branch of human knowledge,
yet lived and worked together harmoniously. In short, no sooner had
Beethoven, then but twenty-two, looked around him in this favoured abode
of the Muses, and made a few acquaintances, than he said to himself,
"Here will I stay, and not return to Bonn even though the Elector should
cut off my pension."

Beethoven did not long enjoy the instructions of his master, for Haydyn
handed him over to the care and instructions of the learned
Allrechtsberger. It appears, that the character of Beethoven was marked
by great singularity from his earliest years. Both Haydyn and
Allrechtsberger, but particularly the latter, have recorded that he was
not willing to profit by good advice. Beethoven has himself been heard
to confess, that among other peculiarities which he prided himself on
displaying, when a young man, was that of refusing to acknowledge
himself as the pupil of Haydyn, at which this master took great offence.

The consequence of this self-confident spirit was, that at this peri